Unexpected Encounters
by HeAler'maGic
Summary: 15 year old Snow Serenata was living a normal life with her best friend Athena Umiko and caretaker Megumi Izumi. But normality's broken when a long lost friend returns. Now being told she must defend herself from a huge danger not only will her once calm life be lost but who will stand by her? Who will die protecting her? Who will betray her? And who's the boy in her nightmare?
1. Prolouge

**An organization of hooded figures stood in a room.**

**"Alice, I am trusting that you can fulfill this mission without failure." a hooded man spoke, he was the only one sitting. A hooded girl spoke, "I will not fail my lord.".**

**"Weren't you once friends with Snow Serenata? How do we know you won't hesitate?" A hooded boy asked**

**The girl grinned, "Because I'd do anything for my lord. In fact here's my proof, Vanessa come" The girl motioned for someone to enter. A woman wearing a hood like the others walked in, but unlike them she wore a mask. "Vanessa? As in Vanessa, the woman who killed the girls parents?" asked the boy.** **The woman laughed at the boys question, causing him to scowl. "Calm down Eron, what's the meaning of this Alice?" the hooded man spoke switching his gaze from Eron back to Alice.**

**"My lord, Eron, fellow companions, this is the woman who brought me to this organization!" the girl snickered, "And not only did she 'murder' dear Snow's parents, but...she is no other than Snow's biological mother!". Another hooded girl asked, "You don't plan on sending crazy Alice alone now, do you Ace?" Ace responded, "No. Of course not Paige...In fact you, Senna, Demiyah, Jace, Derex, and Eron will be joining her."**

**Alice spoke up against this, "But my lord I can handle this on my own I-"**

**Ace cut her off, replying in a tone that sent chills running up and down her spine, "Are you trying to defy my orders Alice?"**

**She gulped, "M-My sincerest apologies my lord." **

**Ace got up and started walking away, "Then it's settled", he announced, "You may set out as soon as you're ready but be gone by morning." Everyone nodded their heads, "Yes sir."**

**"Snow Serenata will be ours." Ace said in a clear soft tone, grinning wickedly before exiting the room.**

Authors note: This is the first story my friend and I have written together and we're hoping everyone enjoys it. We have a few more chapters written and will post them soon. Please R&R so we know what you think ^_^


	2. 1: Alice

_**...She watched as the boy fell from the ledge unconscious. "No...NOOO!",she could feel the panic rising up inside her as she cried out at the top of her lungs. She didn't know why, but it felt like the boy was someone very important to her. She could barely make out any of his features, the scene was hazy and he looked like a blur. Despite not knowing who this boy is or why he's so important, she couldn't fight the need to protect him...but, she was frozen in place. Was it fear...fear of the unknown...or fear of the unexpected?..."Snow!" she turned, someone was calling her "Snow...Snow!" she looked back to where the boy unconscious boy was falling...he was gone. "Snoooow!" her stomach lurched, the scene around her crumbled, and then she woke up...**_

_**. . . . . . . . . . .**_

"Wake up!"

"Go away.", Snow groaned, irritated by the fact that someone was interrupting her daily nap in class. She heard someone sigh. Opening her eyes Snow lifted her head off her desk to see a blonde boy with happy brown eyes pouting at her. She let out a some what irritated sighed, "What is it Leo?" The boy grinned, obviously pleased with the fact he was able to wake her up.

"Class ended an hour ago!"

"What?!"

"Oh crap! Megumi is going to kill me! I have to go now!", Snow shot up from her seat only to have Leo burst out in a fit of laughter. A boy with pink hair and calmer slightly cooler brown eyes walked over and kicked Leo in the chest sending him flying to the other side of the classroom. Leo quickly recovered and came stomping back over, "What the hell Rai?!"

"Calm down, you sound like sleeping beauty here when she wakes up." Rai said gesturing towards Snow. Her eyebrow twitched slightly causing him to smile in triumph. "Oh by the way Snow, we told Meg that we had an afterschool project." Rai said still grinning "Athena is in the chorus room with Jazzelle and Ms. Laelynn but she said you could go ahead home without her.", Leo added in.

Snow nodded and said her goodbyes to the boys and headed home. She arrived home shortly and walked in to see a young woman blue colored hair washing the dishes. The woman looked up with gentle orange eyes and smiled at her, "Welcome home Snow. Did you finish your work?"

"Hm? Oh yeah we finished the project. No worries Megumi!", Snow said helping herself to an apple on the kitchen counter.

"Oh I bet, by judging by that red mark on your fore head you got a lot done", Megumi responded raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh heh that's from bumping into a pole...", She chuckled nervously.

"Sure!", Megumi said darkly.

Just as Megumi was about to give her a long lecture the house phone rang. Snow wondered who could be calling since they never recieved calls unless it was on Megumi's cell phone. Megumi slowly walked over to the phone and answered, "Hello?... is anyone there?...Hello?..", Megumi listened for any sign of somebody on the line, but heard nothing, not even the slightest sound of someone breathing. Shrugging she place the phone back in it's spot, hanging up. "Who was it?", Snow asked. Megumi looked back at the phone again before responding, "I don't know. No one answered. Must've been wrong number."

Snow thought about how unlikely that was, but then shrugged it off and headed towards her room upstairs. As she made her way up the stairs, Snow saw a auburn hair girl about the same age as her walk through the door. "Hey Athena!", Snow greeted with a smile on her face. Athena looked up, teal eyes gleaming, she waved then headed to the kitchen where Megumi was, probably back to washing dishes again.

"Hey Meg.", Athena greeted.

"Hey, were you by chance expecting a call today?"

"Umm...No, not at all. Why?", Athena questioned puzzled.

"Don't be alarmed, someone called a little while ago, but didn't answer when I picked up...must've been the wrong number I suppose, no need to worry.", Megumi informed her. Athena nodded and helped Megumi with the dishes, Athena took a quick glance at Megumi, noticing a hint worry in her eyes. She knew better then to question her though so she kept quiet and tried to forget about it.

After she finished helping Megumi Athena headed upstairs to talk to the only person who would understand or know about this. She knocked on the door. "Come in." walking in the door Athena looked at the raven haired girl with blue and gray tinted eyes. "Snow something's up with Meg". Snow sat up and looked her in the eye. She sighed, " I know...someone called earlier on the house phone...It-...I don't know it's was just weird.", she looked down, "I have a bad feeling about this...honestly this whole day has felt wierd" Athena sighed.

Snow sat there thinking about the strange dream she had. Snow wondered if she should tell Athena, but the truth was she wasn't sure if the dream even meant anything and didn't want to stress about it so she decided to change the topic. " Hey Athena..."

"Yeah?"

"When do you think I'll be able to see Miharu again?"

"I don't know maybe when gramps comes back from his voyage."

"Ughhhh. He's been gone for 7 years now."

"He'll come back soon...he promised.", and with that Athena got up and left.

Snow sat there silently in the dark realizing how late it was. She laid back and let her heavy eyelids close slowly as she drifted off to even more darkness...

_**Snow looked at the darkness that completly surrounded her suddenly spotting a figure lying on the ground. Slowly she walked towards the figure. Her mind was telling her to turn around and run, to hide in the safety of the darkness...but her heart told her otherwise. The closer she got to the figure the blurrier her vision became, but she continued to move forward. Standing before the figure she could faintly make out boy...kneeling down Snow slowly reached out her hand to touch the boy. "W-Why", he choked out. She jumped not expecting him to be conscious. She watched as he slowly reached for her.**_

_**Snow was frozen place again, it felt like hours had passed as the boy's hand-that familiar hand...continued to reached for her. "W-Why", he repeated. "Why what?", Snow managed to whisper.**_

_**"Why didn't you run..."**_

_**"Wha...? Why would I..."**_

_**"You're in danger...I c-couldn't protect..", he stuttered.**_

_**"You couldn't protect what?", she asked, fear spreading through her.**_

_**"...You...", he finally choked out.**_

_**Snow stared in horror as he slowly started to fade away "NO!", she yelled out reaching out to him as he reached to her. Suddenly the darkness started to consume her, trying to drag her deep into the endless abyss. As she watch the rest of him disappear she tried to scream, but nothing came out, all she could do now was continue to fall into darkness...**_

"Snow!", she felt someone shaking her violently. Snow jolted up and grab the wrist of who ever had been shaking her, her blue and gray tinted eyes meeting teal ones.

"Athena? What the hell?!", Snow stared at her friend.

"What do _YOU_ mean 'What the hell?!' You were screaming like a psychopath!"

"Oh..." Snow felt tension in her right hand and realized that she was still tightly holding onto Athena's wrist "Sorry" she said as she let go.

"It's fine...Snow are you sure your ok? The last time you screamed like that was-"

Snow interrupted her, "Ya I'm fine, trust me you don't need to remind me..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable.", Athena apologized, her sadness and worry showing.

"No, don't worry about it", Snow gave Athena a sad smile. Athena sighed obviously unconvinced that her best friend was really ok, but decided to drop it and walked out of the room.

Snow grabbed her phone and checked the time. She sighed it was still pretty early, there's no school today and there was **_no_** way she was going back to sleep now. Snow went through her contact list and called the only person she knew she could talk to about her nightmares.

"Hello?", she heard a semi-tiered voice answer.

"Rai.. I need to talk to you can we meet up?"

"Sure. Where?"

"The park."

"Ok"

After a moment of silence Rai finally said something. "Snow is everything ok?"

"Yea-", she sighed, "I don't know."

This time Snow was the one to break the silence with an abrupt,"I'll be there in 5 minutes." before hanging up.

When she arrived at the park he was already there. Snow tried to smile but he just frowned at her failed attempt. They walked over to the cherry blossom tree at the center of the park. They climbed up onto a branch and just sat in silence until Snow nervously decided to start the conversation, "I've been having nightmares...I know, I know, 'They're only dreams'...Not these though...they're just so real, so real to a point where they're driving me insane! It's always about this, boy..."

"Do you know this boy?"

"No, but he seems so...so familiar. He said he couldn't protect me, and told me to run because I was in danger", Snow looked down at her hand, the hand that she had so desperately used to reach out to the mysterious boy.

"But I couldn't see a single feature of his.. not even what his hair color was. It was all blurry like it was something I wasn't suppose to see." she added.

"I guess all there is to do is sit and wait."

"What?" Snow looked at Rai confused. She didn't think he'd say something like that, actually she didn't know what she thought he would say, but that wasn't it.

"Maybe he'll appear in your life or maybe you'll be able to see him more clearly next time." They were both silent.

"Does darkness truly exist?" Snow asked in a way that sounded like she was out of breath, breaking the silence. Sadness visible in her eyes.

Rai looked at her for a second and then responded, "Where there is light there is darkness and were there is darkness there is light, but one always seems to have a little more control over the other."

Snow sat there and thought about it. She held her hand to her chest. _'Am I made of darkness or light though_' she thought to herself.

"Snow! Rai!", they both turned to see a crazy blonde boy running towards them.

"What's wrong Leo?", Rai questioned the panting boy who looked like he just got done running a marathon.

"Yeah and how'd you know where to find us?", Snow asked puzzled.

"Athena...told...me...", Leo said gasping. He caught his breath then continued, "Tomorrow at school were going to have some huge announcement!", he said happily.

"What is it about?", she asked then added, "How did Athena know where I was I didn't even tell her..."

Leo ignored her question about Athena, not knowing the answer himself, "Some new teachers are coming. They're going to teach us self-defense like combat, magic, and healing!", he squealed.

"Woah! No way!", she gasped. She's always wanted to learn this sort of stuff but Megumi always told her otherwise.

Rai chuckled at her expression.

Snow searched her pocket for her phone only to realize she had left it. She cursed under her breath. "Hey do you guys know what time it is?"

Rai shrugged and Leo checked his watch. "It's 12:00"

"Already?! Me and Rai have been talking for 2 hours?!"

"Well you do talk a lot." Leo quipped back, Snow hopped off the branch while smashing her foot in Leo's face in the process for his stupid comment.

"SNOW!", He roared but she had already took off dashing home only to encounter another fury.

Snow finally made it back home and was about to open the door, but Megumi beat her to it. "Snow Serenata", she growled

"Ok, look I can explain", Snow grinned sheepishly.

Megumi just tapped her foot impatiently, glaring at her.

"I was at the park with Rai discussing things about the project.", she half lied.

Megumi sighed," You could've done that here kitten."

Snow chuckled nervously. She smiled at the nickname that Megumi called her. Megumi was the closest she had to a mother. Snow just made herself believe her parents died and shut out all memories of them now long forgotten.

"Snow what's wrong?", Megumi now serious and concerned.

Snow gave her best smile, "I'm fine don't worry!" She skipped inside and slammed into Athena only to knock herself down.

"OWW! Who put this damn rock- Oh! Hey Athena!"

Athena turned around and glared at Snow. She froze not wanting to die yet. "Aw c'mon, you know you love me right?", she joked nervously. Athena sighed then smiled, "Only you."

Snow grinned and the got up to go get something to eat from the kitchen.

Megumi walked up to Athena.

"Something seems off about her.", she told Athena.

"Yeah I noticed, but knowing how she is..."

"She won't say a thing..." Megumi finished

"Exactly."

Megumi sighed, "I'm going to go run down to the store and buy some groceries. Keep an eye on her would you?" Athena nodded as Megumi turned around and walked out the house.

"Athena, where's Megumi going?, Snow asked.

"To the store it'll only take her 30 minutes at most."

"Ok."

Snow looked out the window and stared at the dark clouds approaching. "Wow it was so sunny just a few minutes ago.", she sighed hoping Megumi would be careful and come home quickly. Something about those clouds gave her a chill..

**- 2 hours later-**

"Athena, Megumi's not answering her phone and it's been two hours.", Snow said worriedly, walking over to the window to see if maybe she was walking up the driveway.

"Maybe there's no connection. It is pretty cloudy outside, and it's possible a power line was knocked down somewhere from this wind.", Athena tried to sound calm, though it was a failed attempt.

Snow sighed and continued to stared out the window. _'Where are you Megumi?' _

**-Meanwhile somewhere else...**

"Hello?... is anyone there?...Hello?..", the hooded girl listened to that familiar voice. She grinned and put the phone away as the line was cut off.

"They still live there.", She informed the other hooded figures, they stayed quiet. The girl frowned "C'mon you know you want to go visit dear Megumi, Athena, and most of all sweet little Snow." She said in playful, but wicked way as she looked up at the dark, cloudy sky following them. She sighed, looking back at her hooded companions "Am I the only one here that's excited? Seriously?". Another hooded girl spoke, "We're just curious on why Ace has such an interest in her,", she paused then added, "How much farther away is the house? Alice?" Alice was staring at the sky again, looking a little too pleased. She directed her gaze back to the other girl, "Just up ahead. Don't worry Paige, it's won't be too much longer" She grinned, "I can't wait for our reunion.", she whispered to herself.

As they continued to walk along the streets, they eventually spotted a certain blue haired and orange eyed young lady walking with bags in her arms.

One of the hooded girls grinned darkly. "Megumi...", she whispered.

Megumi looked up and saw the hooded girl. She froze and started to feel slightly numb as her arms holding the groceries' threatened to give away. She examined the hooded people, trying to sort out the image before her. Finally able to grasp the scene, Megumi managed to mutter a name she thought she long since forgotten. It was a simple name, and it belonged to one of the hooded people that stood before her. Looking into dark eyes Megumi took a deep breath and managed to mutter the name, "Alice."

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . .** **. .**

Authors Note: Yay for our first chapter! We were so excited to post this and we're hoping this chapter meets your approval and if it doesn't...oh well we tried so get over it xD

Anyways please R&R we'd love to know what you think and see ya next chapter or not BYEEE :D


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